Visualizing a Just, Equitable, and Vibrant Neighborhood for the Monon 16

Bird’s eye view looking east on E 16th St. at the Oaks Academy Middle School.

The Harrison Center for the Arts opened in 2000 at 16th and Delaware in the Old Northside neighborhood. This neighborhood, like many others in Indianapolis, had taken a hit since its prime around the turn of the century, when President Benjamin Harrison lived in and was involved with the neighborhood. Since 2000, the Harrison Center has expanded their sphere of influence and had a positive impact on the neighborhood, by hosting gallery shows, outdoor concerts, offering studio spaces, and creating Herron High School in 2004. Now, with the help of Patronicity, the general public, and the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA), they are embarking on a completely new initiative—community engagement and planning for the future through visioning strategies and a strategy dubbed “pre-enactment”: bringing a community’s hope for their future to life.

“Pre-Enactment envisions a just, equitable and vibrant neighborhood where everyone is included in economic prosperity. Rather than dwelling on the past through “re-enactment”, we will “pre-enact” a new, vibrant commercial corridor that serves as hope for the future. The 12-month-long series of community visioning sessions and creative placemaking activities along 16th Street will culminate in a huge, day-long public event on October 7, 2017” (The Harrison Center for the Arts).

The Harrison Center is dissatisfied with the disinvestment, high vacancy rates of both homes and commercial buildings, high unemployment rate, poverty issues and poor levels of education which are present in their neighborhood. They are motivated to change these aspects of their community and show the rest of the neighborhood what the area has the potential to become using “temporary and permanent improvements to the physical structures to depict a healthy neighborhood”.

Harrison Center for the Arts theater students will set up pop-up storefronts and activities to show neighbors the potential of the neighborhood. Source: Vimeo video

By including people from the Harrison Center for the Arts who are already invested in the neighborhood in the visioning efforts of the community, they will build a base of people to follow through with the efforts to permanently revitalize the neighborhood and directly involve neighbors who might not be inclined to get involved otherwise. This Indianapolis-based model of creative placemaking and neighborhood revitalization will be the first of its kind and could have far-reaching impacts around the country, showcasing a new, innovative way to enact change at the neighborhood level. Bringing together theater, the arts, pop-up establishments and community engagement with neighborhood and economic revitalization is a unique approach to issues which plague almost every city in the U.S.

This project is also unique because it is being funded through crowdgranting. The Detroit-based site, Patronicity, is currently hosting three other Indiana projects (in Greensburg, South Bend and Wabash) which are being funded in the same way as well as projects in Michigan and Massachusetts. The Pre-Enactment Theater in Indianapolis has a goal of $50,000 which will then be matched dollar for dollar by IHCDA. Their deadline is in 8 days, on February 15th, and they have just over $13,000 to go! If you feel intrigued and excited about this project or organization, make sure you go to the Pre-Enactment Theater’s page on Patronicity’s website and donate to their cause! Don’t forget to keep up with the Harrison Center for the Arts as they continue their efforts in the Old Northside neighborhood!

Read more about the project and watch a video explaining the process here.

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